#*regardless of presentation!

[frogtimefool]

actually no one understands good omens like the people who refer to aziraphale and crowley with she/her pronouns. revolutionary.

[omens-for-ophelia]

the arrangement is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules...

part 4 of my ineffable kisses series - imagining some kisses throughout time that went decidedly better than That Kiss did...

<< start || part 2 || part 3 || part 4 - golden age of piracy || part 5 || part 6 || part 7 || part 8 || part 9 || part 10 || part 11 || part 12 ???

i personally don't believe aziraphale would be a naval officer in the golden age of piracy, but would instead adopt a kind of 'stede bonnet' approach to piracy that results in him being invariably captured and needing to be rescued several times over - that is, until crowley can physically pick him up and place him on land, under strict instructions never to board a ship ever again 🩷

[haiisx]

my beautiful princess with a disorder <3

You should all consider yourselves lucky I'm not a fanfic author. I would be unstoppable.

[iphigeniacomplex]

stephen king was right when he wrote about mr keene at the derry pharmacy selling sonia kaspbrak tap water aspirators because he knew she was overmedicating her son but did not want to "make himself a party to the woman's foolishness" and he was right when he wrote about mrs dumont, the former teacher of a boy believed to have been murdered by his abusive stepfather, being told by the entire school system not to report the child's injuries, because "suspected child abuse [...] always comes back to haunt the school department at tax appropriation time" and he was right when he wrote about mike hanlon researching the history of his town and finding a culture of silence surrounding each discovered terror ("...and yet that—what shall i call it?—that quiet fits the pattern, too.") and he was right when he wrote about the creator of the universe providing counsel but no real help in the face of it all. and he was right because there will always be another adult in the room, but this is no guarantee that the child will be saved.

[ooooo-mcyt]

Scott Smajor (cc) is such a good story teller actually and the common themes he uses in his storylines captivate me. I think we should talk about how good he is at Themes more often. If I wasn't so tired I'd write essays.

[foldingfittedsheets]

I’d like to be clear to new followers that I’m not vegan? My fish cruelty post has moved into vegetarian/vegan circles and I’m getting a bunch of new followers so I don’t want someone getting pissed later because I post about what I eat.

I grew up on a farm, I believe that humans are interconnected in the food chain with other plants and animals. I believe we have a duty to reduce any undue suffering and allow any animal in our care to thrive, but I also believe that to eat an animal you raised with care is part of the food chain and eating it without waste is respect.

These are my beliefs and choices and I’m not knocking anyone else’s, but I’d like for it not to become a hot button later.

[jesncin]

the "jesncin SB94" discourse

since I'm already sensing discourse brewing and no doubt that it's going to cause a game of telephone and misinformation as people giddily join in on harassment, let me make it clear what actually happened for anyone who cares.

"multiple people including a Black reader called out jesncin for antiblackness on their SB94 webcomic and jesncin shut them down/dismissed them" is misinformation. What actually happened:

"multiple people including a Black reader assumed that just because jesncin introduced a re-imagining of Knockout as a queer Black fat woman, meant they were going to write something regressive and racist based on Knockout's canon history. Despite the fact jesncin never for any SB94 character, retold their story as a direct adaptation of canon"

People projected anti-Black assumptions onto my work, and then blamed ME for it. And demanded I take accountability for the things they made up about me. It's clear some of the people interacting with my AU are unfamiliar with my body of work and my many write ups on racebending in cape representation, because what soon followed was a bunch of baseless accusations, such as:

"jesncin thinks they're fixing the misogyny of SB94 by changing Tana Moon into a boy": I never claimed that my way is the only way to approach adapting and rehabilitating this character. And I find it ridiculous that in a fandom space of play where de-aging and racebending and genderbending characters is the norm, the minute it's a female character fandom despises, people will question your creativity. I know for a fact that if I didn't genderbend Tana into a school boy and kept her a girl, I'd still be bullied over this. Because there is a Pasifika writer on here doing that and is getting similarly bullied by this fandom. So it truly doesn't matter how many times I've explained myself on why I chose to genderbend Tana into a boy to explore queer Hawai'ian identity (because queer readings of the source material in fandom have only been afforded to its white characters), SB94 fans will stay mad. Recognize the anon who brought this up also called my version of Tana a "man" despite the fact he is a school boy, so the racist adultified language and charged response to my work is very apparent.

"jesncin shut down a Black reader calling out anti-Blackness in their work" again, this among many anons was a bad-faith assumption based on a character who was just introduced. The assumption was that I was apparently too clueless to know about anti-Black tropes regarding Black women historically and was racebending carelessly. No matter how many times I explained myself and my intentions, all people paid attention to was the optics that I was calling out a Black reader who projected something that didn't even happen in my work. Said Black anon also called my work "Kon and the afro punk scene and the merry band of heartlessly racebent Black characters" and made random assumptions that this included me racebending a character like Paul Westfield (who has not shown up in my story yet) as Black. Just because I called this person out for perpetuating racism in fandom by making such charged assumptions, people are saying I'm tone policing them. That's not what tone-policing means- I didn't insist they "say it nicer" for my ego, I pointed out that they were being cruel and presumptuous for assuming the worst of me. I'd say the same thing if they were white. Am I supposed to accept cruel dismissive assumptions about myself just because it's coming from another marginalized person? Nonsense.

"jesncin racebent Paul Westfield as Black" again, this character didn't show up yet in my webcomic. His name is mentioned as the name Kon remembers and assumes is his. This one is proof that some of yall don't know my body of work because people decided to explain my own AU to me by saying "well your Kal is white and you're not doing the Clex baby origin so therefore your Paul Westfield is Black, dummy!" (it was very rude). This one is laughable because my take is explicitly the Clex baby retcon origin story. I've already made it clear that Lex is Kon's clone dad in both metas and comics. This was supposed to be a plot twist I'd reveal later, but my version of Paul Westfield is white. So this was straight up fabricated based on bad faith assumptions specifically by that Black anon. That's how bad faith it was.

"jesncin called Knockout a queer woman despite the fact that it was canonized years later by Gail Simone" look, it really is up to personal interpretation whether an official canonization by a writer is the moment that character became queer or you include the moments of coding before as evidence to the fact the character was queer long before official canonization. I personally include when the character was coded as queer as a part of their queer history. Knockout was making horny one liners to women she fought long before Gail Simone canonized her as queer. Personally, I think that's part of the fetishization of women in SB94- the "sexually liberated woman" that Karl Kesel was portraying as "taboo women". Kesel would later agree with Simone's canonization, remarking that Kon would be bi as well. People are really frustrated that this is my personal take because they hate Knockout. Some people believe Simone's canonization of Knockout, canonically a child predator, as queer is homophobic and that is up to you. I think Simone read SB94 and got attached to characters like King Shark (who we have her to thank that he's still relevant) and Knockout (a red-head like herself) and wanted to do a soft reboot with them. How well that lands is up to you, but Knockout is certainly celebrated by some queer fans and I think they're allowed to enjoy what Simone brought to her character.

I felt an incident like this was inevitable- if it wasn't going to start with my version of Tana, then it was going to be Kay, one way or the other. The SB94 fandom is notorious for ignoring the sexism and racism that informs the original text and insisting that anyone who doesn't acknowledge Kon as a grooming victim is "erasing trauma". They'll always say "regardless of the narrative properly acknowledging it, Kon was a victim" but get real quiet when you ask them to recognize the other "not properly acknowledged by the narrative" fact that Kon neo-colonized Hawai'i in his original run. This fandom has found a way to moralize hating fictional women, and use that to gatekeep creativity in fandom. All this is ironic as this is cape comics. Where canon itself is as nebulous as the fan works made about it.

I can already see from this incident that blogs are blocking and un-following each other and causing some sort of schism in the SB94 fandom. I always felt like I was just kind of tolerated in this space whenever I posted an ambitiously deconstructive re-imagining that criticizes the bigotry inherent in the source material. Because this fandom really doesn't like to think about the explicit racism of SB94. So to see someone directly deconstruct it by rehabilitating the female characters they hated so much was probably really frustrating. And now because someone made multiple bad faith assumptions about my work, they finally have a moralistic reason for disliking me instead of interrogating that initial discomfort.

I'm actually not the first person to re-imagine Kay as Black/dark skinned. There's another fan artist on here with a webcomic they didn't get to finish who also re-imagined her that way. As far as I know, they did not get the same kind of harassment I did for it. But that's how this kind of discourse works, it's never logical. It's about ignoring someone explaining themselves and finding optics to take out of context to harass someone.

I really want this to be the last time I talk about this. It's put me in a bad space creatively. I used to find this fandom thing fun, but time and time again people make it a tiring community to engage in. This kind of clarification doesn't usually matter to people who need to hear it the most, but I hope it can at least do something.

[serpentface]

Faiza performing the Kagnoma Odo (pretty literally 'lion dance'), a weapons dance and one of the more important ritual duties of Odonii priestesses. A relatively new addition to this traditional dance involves the musket as the primary weapon, which is fired mid-twirl into the ground at the climax of the dance. Faiza is experiencing an 'oh fuck' moment because her shot is more than ideally diagonal, but she’s being so cool with it.

This is a wholly ceremonial performance at the onset of the pilgrimage, performed in full regalia and lion skin (of the small, semi-domesticated strain) but no armor. It’s also distinctly a display of political allegiance between the powerful and beloved Odonii priesthood (and its loyal military) with the increasingly reviled and destabilized imperial family, with Faiza prominently wearing a bracelet of the royal serpent, which was gifted (along with the musket) by the usoma Stavis Amanti himself (Usoma is the Wardi word for king, which has been retained in the context of emperors).

The Kagnoma Odo is the ultimate demonstration of the Odonii as an embodiment of the Lion Face of God and living vessel of military might and sovereignty, demonstrating her fitness and proficiency with weapons and as a spiritual unifier for soldiers. It is accompanied by drumming and occurs in stages, running through the three keymost weapons used in war- the spear, the sword, and the musket. The musket is of the most significance, given the weapon has developed a particular esteem as the ultimate embodiment of might and superiority. Assistants (almost always other priestesses, occasionally high ranking soldiers) load and prime the musket to be fired at the climax of the dance, where it is shot into the ground as the priestess leaps out of range of the shot. The firing signals the end of the dance and the rite itself.

While not the utmost exemplar of trigger discipline, only fully inducted and senior (and therefore very thoroughly trained) Odonii are permitted to perform the dance, and injuries during actual performances are quite rare (though are known to occur during training, more than a few Odonii have burns and wounds on their feet).

The most important renditions of this dance are performed upon declarations of war and before battles (in this case, generally done in full armor along with the lion pelt). It is also done during some trainings (while a dance, it is carefully choreographed to include naturalistic maneuvers of the weapons involved and helps soldiers limber up and learn to move their weapons). It is regarded as an impressive and motivating sight and a morale booster, and, seen at a distance, potentially intimidating to enemies.

A special variant of this dance is performed as means of fully incarnating the Odomache, which is done in full nudity with the body covered in the blood of the freshly sacrificed lion and cloaked in its raw pelt (the lion has become the corpse of Odomache in the moment of death, as part of its recreation of God's sacrifice). Her public, full nude appearance once (and only once) in this act is what allows the Lion Face of God to incarnate within her. Those in attendance see the spiritually vulnerable, naked human body obscured with the sanctified and deified blood and cloaked in the sanctified and deified skin. It is a merger of the contradictions of mortality and divinity, the boundaries between the two indistinct in flickering firelight and the flash of musketfire. She is witnessed by her people, dangling in between humanity and divinity and leading them in dance, and and is thus transformed.

[vingler-mirror]

Everyone look at the smolsolde and smolkania!!

I now have the doomed yuri in my hands... please watch over me to make sure I use this power for good.

[omens-for-ophelia]

Time comes and goes and returns by days, by months, by years, and I, alas, know not what to say, for my longing is always one, it is always one and never changes.

-Bernart de Ventadorn

part 5 of my ineffable kisses series - imagining some kisses throughout their canon timeline that went decidedly better than That Kiss did...

<< start || part 2 || part 3 || part 4 || part 5 - middle ages || part 6 || part 7 || part 8 || part 9 || part 10 || part 11 || part 12 ???

this one fought me a LOT because i was having some real RSI flare ups, but i do love the idea of them thriving in the era of courtly love and chivalry, i think it suits them beautifully. lady crowley and her bold knight sir aziraphale... someone fetch my lute!

note: in every work in this series, aziraphale & crowley are queer celestials, regardless of their gender presentation, pronouns or otherwise.

[razzle-zazzle]

the most correct realization i've ever had about anything ever

[martyrbat]

my secret confession is i think a lot of current art in comics is pretty but sometimes way too glossy and lifeless... it kinda feels like a sticker sheet where they just swap out generic stock poses that they have on hand for that character rather than the art being reflective of the actual story and moment the character is currently in

[bokunodumbassery]

Say what you want, but if Shouta and Hizashi wouldn't yell homophobic slurs at each other they're not really Shouta and Hizashi.

[cent-scratchnsniff]

something bad did indeed happen to that man. spent abt 25 minutes trying to find a better picture of that one (1) offical piece with his eyes open that wasnt compressed or tiny

[venum0us]

masc presenting mina 😙

[kmesons]

thinking about Mags during Ipomoea, Pt. 1